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Pelosi: Don’t let primary hurt congressional races |
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By Aaron Blake
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Posted: 03/28/08 03:59 PM [ET] |
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Seeking to defuse growing intra-party strains, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) appealed to Democratic donors Friday not to “allow the tension and pressures of a spirited presidential contest to spill over and harm” Democratic candidates running for the House. Pelosi’s appeal, which was included in a late-first-quarter fundraising appeal on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), comes on the heels of a critical letter she received from big-dollar donors of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). They asked her to stop asserting her position that superdelegates should not overturn the result of the pledged delegate race. Supporters of the former first lady saw this as an anti-Clinton gambit, as she is unlikely to overtake Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in pledged delegates. The letter has been widely interpreted as a veiled threat to withhold funds from House races. Pelosi, who has remained publicly neutral in the presidential contest, has stuck by her commentary. Her appeal is an acknowledgment of the danger that such tensions pose to the party. MoveOn.org has launched a petition condemning the actions of Clinton’s donors. “Throughout the presidential nominating process, I have been so proud to watch Democrats turn out in record numbers and demonstrate enormous grassroots energy,” Pelosi said in the letter. “And soon we will have an exciting presidential nominee who will make our entire party proud.” |
